
Via: Canucklehead.
• Chicago Sun-Times: 'Our state is $120.6 billion short':[Illinois] papered over our annual budget deficits by borrowing, just as many people put off the day of reckoning by using credit cards. But the state now owes $85 billion in bond IOUs -- promises we've made to "pay later with interest." Our credit -- the ability to borrow -- has about maxed out. So we're not paying our bills. Not someday in the future but right now...
...Comptroller Dan Hynes, said recently the state owes $5 billion to schools, universities, child-care centers and rehab centers around the state. He calls it "obscene," telling the New York Times: "This is not some esoteric budget issue; we are not paying bills for absolutely essential services."
A popular driver's license facility in Libertyville could be forced to close if the state doesn't pay four months in back rent within 45 days, the landlord said... Stephen Martin, whose family owns the Brookside shopping center on the 300 block of Peterson Road that houses the Secretary of State office, has sent a letter to state officials saying he wishes to terminate the lease agreement because of the long-overdue payments. Martin said the state owes him nearly $43,000 in back rent and expenses.
The $415 million Illinois school districts will receive from the federal government to help save teachers’ jobs is meant to provide cash-strapped districts some relief... But while local districts would welcome the assistance, some are skeptical about whether that money will actually materialize, especially since the state still hasn’t made payments from last fiscal year...
• Chicago Breaking News: Immigrant groups ask state to pay its bills:A coalition of immigrant social service groups today called on state officials to pay the $7.4 million the groups are owed... The dozens of mostly community-based organizations that provide social services to immigrants are in the same boat as other Illinois vendors. The state owes more than $4.2 billion in unpaid bills, according to the Illinois comptroller's office...
...A survey conducted by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights found that of 42 immigrant groups polled, 22 won't be able to pay employees past October and could shut their doors.
Illinois has borrowed more than $2.2 billion from the federal government since July 2009 to pay unemployment benefits.
The good news is the state has not had to borrow since April, and the loan is interest-free for now... “We really do access it as needed. It’s a day-to-day decision, five days a week,” Illinois Department of Employment Security spokesman Greg Rivara said Thursday.
Please remove your post of Tyler Durden’s inaccurate analysis of the Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System. It is not excellent. It is wrong... TRS is not in a death spiral. We’ll still be operating and paying pensions for years to come.
We could potentially sell $3 billion in assets if the Illinois General Assembly does not come up with its annual contribution to TRS. The state owes us $2.35 billion...
A Labor Day reminder from NewsBusters: earlier this year, an SEIU executive stated that amnesty for illegal immigrants would 8 million new Democrat voters to the base.
The Democrat-led government's rapacious cycle of tax, borrow and spend will end, come hell or high water, in the not-too-distant future. And how will this inevitable crash begin? What will happen when the value of the dollar plummets to zero, as it must as surely as gravity pulls a thrown baseball back to Earth?
Companies were nationalized, land was confiscated, and mines were taken over by the government, all in the name of wealth redistribution. Ostensibly these industries and properties were now owned by "the workers". In reality, of course, Allende's friends and supporters were placed in powerful oversight roles within the government and in the companies themselves.
Soon retailers and warehouses had been emptied of goods as the consumer base used its new-found wealth to go on a massive shopping spree. Once stores had been emptied, Allende immediately blamed right-wing, anti-Marxist "hoarders" for the failures of his policies.
And this is how Chile's hyperinflation began. There was no shortage of cash, but it quickly became worthless, because goods and services had disappeared.
It was at this point that hyperinflation truly began.
You don't have to ride on a treacherous, unlit cow path from the north-side of Boston to Lexington as the King's Regulars attempt a surprise attack on the Sons of Liberty.
You don't have to board a frigate, sail for weeks across the Atlantic and then sack a city in Tripoli to rescue your imprisoned countrymen.
You don't have to kill a British soldier in a desperate, hand-to-hand struggle after leaping out of a boat on the beach at York during the War of 1812.
You don't have to hold the line against Pickett's desperate charge at Gettysburg as thousands of wounded men shriek bloody murder around you.
You don't have to resist a vicious attack by the Hun with fixed bayonets at Belleau Wood.
You don't have to survive a terrifying duck-boat run onto Omaha Beach as men around you are being chopped to bits by fortified Nazi gun emplacements.
You don't have to liberate the Nazi Death Camps, capping months of brutal fighting and desperate marching through the dirt roads of Europe.
You don't have to withstand a surprise attack by the Chinese 'People's Volunteer Army', fighting to hold the line in 35°-below-zero temperatures for days on end near the Chosin Reservoir.
You don't have to defend the city of Huế from a surprise attack by Viet Cong and PAVN regulars, fighting block-to-block as the entire country is set afire by the Tet Offensive.
You don't have to race across the desert, waiting for a chemical attack or a Scud missile to hit, baking in 130° temperatures, so that you can expel Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard from Kuwait.
You don't have to patrol a patch of hard-scrabble earth in Aghanistan or Iraq, waiting for the inevitable IED by the side of the road -- or signs that you've rolled right into an ambush by heavily-armed 'insurgents' equipped with Iranian RPGs.
Our Dying Constitution: ATQOTD: "Every Democrat elected to the House of Representatives will vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker." -- Grand Old Partisan
USA defeated Iran in basketball today, which comes as a surprise to no one. What may raise a few eyebrows: team dancers were forced to wear long pants in a “nod to Muslim law"...
One interesting tidbit that arose from the game: the cheerleaders were forced to cover up.[In} a nod to the Iranian supporters in Istanbul — which included minister of sports Ali Saeedlou earlier in the tournament — dancers were ordered to cover up for their performances during the game. Islam prohibits women from exposing their skin in public, and Iranian officials had turned their backs when the dancers performed in earlier games.
The dancers wore long pants Wednesday.
The closeups are even better.


Don't bother looking for the 'peace' or 'coexist' signs.
Tension abounds in Pakistani city as Shiites bury bombing victims: Islamabad - Pakistan's south-western city of Quetta was tense Saturday as minority Shiite Muslims buried victims of a suicide bombing that killed over 70 innocent people...
Taliban threaten attacks in America, Europe and [on] Shia Muslims: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) threatened on Friday to launch attacks in the US and Europe “very soon”...
"The Palin-haters' guilt-by-association smear": sisuCook County Board President Todd Stroger's administration acknowledged Wednesday that 25 checks worth more than $6.7 million were paid out before receiving the required board approval... Democratic Chicago Commissioner John Daley, head of the finance committee, said, "I'm very concerned that this is a true violation of the board's intent."
Chief Financial Officer Jaye Williams said she could not release the names of the persons who authorized the checks, as an investigation is ongoing, but she said some employees had been "removed" from their positions and disciplinary measures were being "contemplated."
...after a summer of tussling with Stroger over [new] contracts and hirings, promotions and raises he granted as a lame duck, it raised more suspicion among the commissioners, who went on to pass an ordinance smoothing the transition from Stroger to the next president... Stroger will be required to ... guarantee access to records.
The raise for Williams, which boosted her salary to $230,000, was one of several Stroger has handed out since his primary election loss in February... Others who received raises were Communications Director Eugene Mullins, who is Stroger’s boyhood friend, and Carla Oglesby, a publicist who managed the failed campaign.Stroger said earlier in the week he had suspended Oglesby without pay until the conclusion of an inspector general’s investigation... That probe was launched after it was revealed that the company owned by Oglesby, whose salary was boosted from $116,000 to $120,000, had been awarded a $24,775 contract by Stroger’s administration just days after she was hired.
That contract fell just under the $25,000 threshold required for County Board approval. Stroger’s administration also gave a $24,995 contract to a Maryland campaign consultant who was brought in before the election to straighten out Stroger’s campaign fund.
The County Board Finance Committee had asked to receive a report on the raises by today, but agreed to a delay as the administration double-checked its list, said Commissioner John Daley, D-Chicago, the committee’s chairman.
One of the most peculiar observations of this depression started in December 2007 is that while the total US population has increased by 6.8 million from 303.3 million to just over 310 million in July 2010, over the same 32 month period, the civilian labor force has declined from 153.9 million to 153.6 million...
This makes zero sense, as all those aging into working age, or immigrating into the US need to find some job or some other paid activity (either legally or illegally). But let's assume that due to discouragement with economic conditions people simply refuse to look for jobs... [based upon our calculations] the cumulative differential between the labor force as reported, and as calculated has hit an all time record of 3.7 million: this is a number that has to be added to the 7.6 million directly tabulated unemployed to get a sense of just how many jobs have been lost assuming a reversion to the mean for the US economy...Chart 1: we demonstrate the cumulative change in the population of the US, the cumulative change in the as reported and the as calculated labor force, and the difference between the two (thick black line).
In other words, after eliminating the statistical voodoo of the BEA and the Census Bureau, the US has lost just over 11.2 million jobs since the start of the recession.Chart 2: Cumulative job losses since December 2007, based on Establishment Survey estimates and adjusted for Labor Force "Catch Up"
The "Young Guns" have a book. They also have a promotion tour and a video. Now, the Democrats could engage in a battle of ideas. But that’s not what they do. (are you surprised?)
...What is the mechanism? The publisher posts a video by the authors about their book that contains a link to a website that takes political contributions. It is after all, a political manifesto.
...Democrats use the power of the federal government to attempt to prohibit the political speech and promotion of speech by their political enemies. That’s the kind of thing that lead to the American Revolution. Tea Parties make perfect sense in this context.
Elena Kagan argued on behalf of Citizens United essentially stating it would not be a violation of the First Amendment to have movies or even books banned. Of course, she only meant certain movies/books for specific times, but even so, I believe the point remains... all tyrants find a pretext for their tyranny.
The Disclose Act that House Democrats passed Thursday would "shred" the U.S. Constitution and represents a "blatant partisan maneuver to protect their incumbency," according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President R. Bruce Josten... Only two Republicans voted for the act: Rep. Anh "Joseph" Cao of Louisiana and Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware...
...Groups opposing the measure span the political continuum, including the ACLU, the Sierra Club, PIRG (the federation of state public interest research groups), the chamber and many others... The chamber recently called the bill a "desperate attempt" by Democrats to grab a political advantage in the midterm elections.
The act requires companies and associations to submit a mountain of paperwork to the Federal Election Commission if they want to run an ad.
The ruling was a vindication, the majority said, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech. The dissenters said allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace will corrupt democracy.
“If the First Amendment has any force,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, which included the four members of its conservative wing, “it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”